Portable electronic devices, such as portable media players, tablet, netbook, and laptop computers, and cell, media, and smart phones, have become ubiquitous in recent years. These devices may communicate with each other using cables having connector inserts on each end, where the connector inserts are inserted into connector receptacles on the communicating devices.
Conventionally, each device may communicate with a particular device using a specific type of receptacle and cable. For example, a computer may communicate with a display using a Digital Video Interface (DVI) connector and cable and a hard drive using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector and cable. Apple Inc., of Cupertino, Calif., has reduced this complexity by developing the Thunderbolt interface, which can be used to communicate with displays, hard drives, and other devices.
This increased usefulness has increased the need for multiple Thunderbolt connector receptacles on a single device. But placing a number of connectors of any type on a device comes with its own difficulties. For example, a number of connectors may have a number of pins or contacts that may terminate in corresponding holes in a printed circuit board. It may be difficult to align a large number of pins with their corresponding holes. It may also be desirable to align each connector receptacle to an opening in a housing for the electronic device. While an individual connector receptacle may be aligned to an opening in such a housing, aligning several such connector receptacles to several openings may be a more difficult proposition. This task may be further exacerbated if the device openings themselves are located on a curved or otherwise non-planar surface of the device enclosure.
Thus, what is needed are connector receptacles where a multiple of such connector receptacles may be readily aligned to holes in a printed circuit board and openings in an enclosure for an electronic device, particularly where the openings are located on a curved or otherwise non-planar surface of the device enclosure.